Welcome to the website of Varadero Rum: distilled, aged and bottled in Santiago de Cuba, the birthplace of rum. In 1862, with the support of the Spanish crown, the Varadero Rum Distillery was founded to produce the first aged, light traditional rum. “Traditional” because it is made with the molasses which comes from Cuba’s famous sugar cane; “light” because it is clean and naturally distilled to reach its perfect level of alcohol: Rum as we know it today.

Santiago de Cuba, located in the eastern part of the Island, is the birthplace of modern rum, clean and extraordinary, and very different from the rum sailors and pirates once drank and called the “devil’s drink”. The South-eastern coast of Cuba lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the Sierra Maestra, a land whose climate is ideal for the cultivation of the ‘medialuna’ sugar cane whose fermented and distilled molasses becomes exceptional aguardiente with the finest organoleptic qualities. The interaction between the aguardiente and the bacteria of the oak barrel allows for a pure and natural aging process.

The Maestros Roneros (Master rum-makers)of our distillery created the first 5-10 and 15 year aging bacteria back in 1862. Since then the “Nave Don Pancho”, the oldest distillery in Cuba, has jealously guarded this special barrel bacteria, the “Mother of Rum”, and proudly gives us Ron Varadero.